February Lecture - Tony Blackman

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PROFILE Tony Blackman was educated at Oundle School and Trinity College Cambridge, where he obtained an honours degree in Physics. After joining the Royal Air Force as a Maths and Physics Instructor, he learnt to fly, flew Vampires and Venoms in Germany, trained as a test pilot and then joined A.V.Roe and Co. Ltd. where he became Chief Test Pilot. During his time at Avros/Hawker Siddeley/British Aerospace, he helped develop the Vulcan, Nimrod, Victor Mk 2 tanker and the Avro 748/RAF Andover. Tony was an expert in aviation electronics and was invited by Smiths Industries to join their Aerospace Board, initially as Technical Operations Director. He helped develop the then new large electronic displays and Flight Management Systems. After leaving Smiths Industries, he was invited to join the Board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority as the Technical Member. Tony is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Fellow of the American Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation.

SYNOPSIS: Tony will discuss the Nimrod which was arguably the world’s best reconnaissance aircraft at the time it was stopped, prematurely, in October 2010 by the Government of the day under great financial duress but, unfortunately, leaving the UK almost defenceless from a maritime reconnaissance viewpoint, certainly for long distances, not to mention being unable to fulfil the UK’s International Search and Rescue commitments. Not many people realise what a great job the aircraft did because so much of what it did was classified. Conversely they don’t realise what a great loss it is to the UK. Tony was involved with the aircraft from the start when he was a test pilot at Avros bidding for the programme; he tested and flew nearly all of the aircraft built and, by chance, was giving the annual Fresson talk at Elgin, next to Kinloss the operational base for the Nimrod, on the very day the project was stopped. Tony will explain how the aircraft operated with its many sensors and crew members, will describe some notable sorties including the Falklands Campaign and will finish talking about the brand new MRA4 version, vastly over budget, incredibly late but superbly fitted out with latest systems. The talk will be based on Tony’s latest book Nimrod Rise and Fall which is described on his web site, tony@blackmanbooks.co.uk; is a beautifully produced book, 224 pages with over 140 colour photographs and will be obtainable in Australia through the NSW distributors Capricorn or on the internet.